Indian Music and the Ali Akbar College of Music

Ali Akbar College of Music Indian Music and the Ali Akbar College of Music The Ali Akbar College of Music is the only institution outside India which teaches the classical music of the Baba Allauddin Khan Seni Gharana (or Tradition) in the traditional style. The AACM was founded in Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1956. It opened its first U.S. branch in Berkeley, California, in 1967. In 1974, it established permanent facilities in Marin County at its present location in San Rafael. Ali Akbar Khan, son of the great Allauddin Khan and founder of the AACM, came to this country in accordance with his father’s wish to spread the unique music of North India throughout the world. By his decision to remain in America to live and teach, Ali Akbar Khan influenced not only Indian and American music, but music throughout the world. In every country around the globe the nurturing of Indian music outside of India brought new insights into the many-faceted and dazzling possibility of melodic experimentation, rhythmic complexity, improvisation and ornamentation. Since the opening of the Ali Akbar College of Music in the United States, more than 40 years ago, over ten thousand students have attended its classes. Dedicated students from all over the world, of all ages and backgrounds, find the AACM to be a treasure house of learning opportunities. Many of these students have become concert performers and teachers. THE MUSIC To understand the origin of the music in this tradition it may be helpful to understand a little about India’s music traditions. Unlike the Western style of teaching that focuses primarily on the learning of compositions from notation, the classical music of India is still taught, as it has been since antiquity, in the oral tradition passed from guru to disciple. Indian music also has a system of notation, but its main purpose is to augment students’ understanding and memory. During lessons, the student learns by listening and memorizing, reproducing what the teacher sings or plays as exactly as possible with all the music’s subtleties, nuances and ornaments. Gradually, over years of study, practice and memorization, the student learns to create and improvise within the classical structure of Indian music. In the Indian tradition students are called sisya and teachers are called gurus. This teaching/learning relationship is known as the guru-sisya parampara and has ancient origins. In India this relationship is regarded as sacred. Students were often the blood relations of the teachers, but also particularly gifted and persevering students from outside of a family were accepted as students and lived with the teachers or lived nearby. Such is the case in our tradition (the Baba Allauddin Seni Gharana). Baba Allauddin Khan, and his son Ali Akbar Khan, are known throughout India and the world as two of the greatest musicians of the 20th Century. Allauddin Khan’s main guru was Wazir Khan, a direct descendant of Miyan Tansen, court musician to Akbar the Great and considered by most to be the main progenitor of modern classical north Indian music. To 1 Ali Akbar College of Music understand the epic nature of Allauddin Khan and Miyan Tansen’s lives, as well as the musically illustrious inheritance of Ali Akbar Khan, see biographies in the appendix. INDIA North Indian classical music, or Hindustani music as it is sometimes referred to, is from the North of India. The Republic of India is a country in South Asia which comprises most of the Indian subcontinent. India has a coastline which stretches over seven thousand kilometers, and shares its borders with Pakistan to the west, the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, and Bangladesh and Myanmar on the east. On the Indian Ocean, it is adjacent to the island nations of the Maldives on the southwest, Sri Lanka on the south, and Indonesia on the southeast. India also claims a border with Afghanistan to the northwest. India is the tenth largest economy in the world. It is also the second most populous country in the world, with a population of over one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. It is home to some of the most ancient civilizations, and a centre of important historic trade routes. Four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism have originated from India. Formerly a major part of the British Empire as British India before gaining independence in 1947, during the past twenty years the country has grown significantly, especially in its economic and military spheres, regionally as well as globally. The official name of the country, India IPA: /'ɪndɪə/, is derived from the Old Persian version of Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the river Indus; The Constitution of India and general usage also recognizes Bharat (Hindi: ) which is derived from the Sanskrit name of an ancient Hindu king, whose story is to be found in the Mahabharata, as an official name of equal status. A third name, Hindustan Hindustan (Hindi: - + Hindūstān], from the Persian Hindū: ندوستان ]Hindūsthān], Urdu] stān, archaic Hindoostan) and the adjective Hindustani may relate to various aspects of four geographic areas: • Hindustan: "Land of the Hindus." The word "Hindu" is the Persian form of "Sindhu," the Indus river. Hindustan is considered one of the earliest historical names for the nation of Bharat, India. • The area populated by native Hindustani speaking peoples, particularly the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, formerly a part of the United Provinces. During British rule in South Asia, people in this region were identified as "Hindustanis." • A historical region encompassing present day Northern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and neighboring areas. The Mughal Empire and its predecessor sultanate were also referred to as Hindustan, or Salthanat-e-Hind. Hindustani music is a genre of classical music from this region that combines traditional Hindu musical concepts and Persian performance practice. 2 Ali Akbar College of Music • The country of India. Hindustani denotes a connection to India and Hindustan is another name for India. • South Asia or the Indian subcontinent. Hindustan is specifically a term for the pre-Islamic Hindu and Buddhist culture of South Asia. Hindustani is sometimes used as a cultural, ethnic, or genetic term for South Asia. (e.g., A West Indian with such roots might describe his ethnicity by saying he is Hindustani.) IPA: /hɪn'duːstɑːn/), or land of the Hindus in Persian, has been used since Mughal times, though its contemporary use is unevenly applied due to domestic disputes over its representative as a national signifier. Geographically, the region is bound by the Himalaya to the north and east, and the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south. The Hindu Kush mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan/Iran are usually considered the westernmost edge of the subcontinent. SOUTH ASIA AND THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT Geologically, this region is a subcontinent because it rests on a tectonic plate of its own, the India Plate, separate from the rest of Eurasia and was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate and giving birth to the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. Even now the India Plate continues to move northward with the result that the Himalaya are growing taller by a few centimeters each decade. In addition, the region is also home to an astounding variety of geographical features that are typical of much larger continents, such as glaciers, rainforests, valleys, deserts, and grasslands in an area about half the size of the United States. South Asia ranks among the world's most densely-populated regions. About 1.5 billion people live there — about a quarter of all the people in the world. The region's population density of 305 persons per square kilometer is more than seven times the world average. The region has a long history. Ancient civilizations developed in the Indus River Valley. The region was at its most prosperous before the 18th century, when the Mughal (Mongol)Empire held sway in the north; European colonialism led to a new conquering of the region, by Portugal and Holland, and later Britain and to a lesser degree France. Most of the region gained independence from Europe in the late 1940s. 3 Ali Akbar College of Music The Indian Subcontinent India and surrounding countries India: satellite view Hindustani classical music is an Indian classical music tradition originating in the North of the Indian subcontinent circa the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary traditions established primarily in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, though classical Hindustani music suffered a decline during the partition of India and Pakistan due to lack of a patronage system. In comparison and contrast to Carnatic music, the other main Indian classical music tradition originating from the South, Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient Hindu musical traditions, Vedic philosophy and native Indian sounds (in similar ways to South Indian music) but also, unlike Carnatic music, by the Persian performance practices of the Mughals. Outside India, Hindustani classical music is often associated with Indian music in general, as it is arguably the most popular stream of Indian music outside India. 4 Ali Akbar College of Music The following map shows language areas and important music centers in North India. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. India is made up of several dozen ethnic groups, speaking their own languages and dialects.

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